Were are they now

[psychostorm]

Anyhow, the Matilda in the arena is not the original, however the shell was cast from the original mold. John of Roaming Robots/ Robot Wars is in possession of most of the original molds, I can't remember which ones exactly, I think he has molds for the original five.

Four of the original five - Dead Metal didn't have any notable fibreglass sections. Interesting, they were found on EBay.

I believe the original shell the Roaming Robots/Robot Wars live event used for Matilda was courtesy of Alan Gribble, and was returned to his University for display when he passed. As for if this shell was original or fabricated, I'm not sure. I have the feeling an original shell was given to someone once, but that could be nothing, I've read a lot over the years.

That shell was a fixed original that Pussycat had cut into and was given to Alan Gribble (RIP). He fixed it, built a duplicate Matilda and Jonno borrowed it.

I don't know why they're not in John's possession yet, but I'd hope that happens some day as he now has the legal right to use the likeness of the house robots, as the license was bought from Robot Wars LLC. There was a picture circulated recently, dating from just the last few years of all the house robots in good health on shelves in storage. There were multiples of a few robots, Matilda and Dead Metal specifically I believe. I have no idea how much it would cost to get the original house robots up to modern combat standards or if it would even be possible. It would be nice to see though, even if it was just for the retro fights.

There were lots of spares and the broken parts were built together to make publicity duplicates to have photos taken with.

Where the House Robots are isn't relevant.

The old House Robots wouldn't survive full combat featherweights nowadays. They are under powered and breaking. They'd need a substantial rebuild if they came back anyway. It's more in Jonno's interests to start over and make a more powerful replica than finding the originals.

[craig_colliass]

"Modern FW's would give any non-spinner HW a serious kicking. As an example, most current UK HW flippers are 3mm/4mm Hardox. Most FW's have the same type and thickness of armour and most spinners can go through it anyway."
I would love to play with ALL the FW spinners with Cherub any time.